With the development of mobile communications technologies, based on the second-generation (2G) mobile communication network and the third-generation (3G) mobile communication network, a mobile communication network with higher and higher transmission rate, such as, a fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication network, is widely applied increasingly. However, in a process of developing the high-speed mobile communication network such as the 4G mobile communication network, limited by various conditions, the existing low-speed mobile communication network cannot be completely upgraded to a new high-speed mobile communication network in a short time. Therefore, the foregoing high-speed mobile communication networks coexist with the existing low-speed mobile communication networks for a long time. Because a single-card dual-standby user equipment (UE) resides in two mobile communication networks, the single-card dual-standby user equipment needs to execute, in the two mobile communication networks, a location update caused by a location change and a location update caused by timeout of a periodic update timer.
However, in a period after the location update caused by the location change is executed in one mobile communication network, the single-card dual-standby user equipment may also need to execute, in the other mobile communication network, the location update caused by the timeout of the periodic update timer. In this way, the single-card dual-standby user equipment is continually activated to execute the location update, resulting in unnecessary electric energy loss of the single-card dual-standby user equipment.